Environmental group launches World Cup ad blitz on old-growth logging

As the World Cup captured attention in downtown Vancouver this month, an environmental group seized the moment to shine a spotlight on one of B.C.'s most controversial practices: old-growth logging. Sierra Club B.C. launched ads coinciding with the tournament to raise awareness about the ongoing clear-cutting of the province's ancient forests. The campaign appears online, on buildings, in bars and restaurants, on TV, on billboards downtown, and at SkyTrain stations. The ads state that an average of 100 soccer fields of old-growth forest are still clear-cut every day in B.C.—a figure drawn from the group's 2025 report on the state of B.C.'s forests, "Closer to the Brink." "The World Cup reminds us of our unique place in the world when it comes to our forests—they are globally rare and disappearing under our watch," said Shelley Luce, campaign director at Sierra Club B.C. "As the world turns its attention to Vancouver, the B.C. government has an opportunity to lead the world by taking real steps to protect these precious ecosystems." B.C.'s Forest Ministry counters that 80 per cent of the province's 111,000 square kilometres of old forests are either protected, deferred, uneconomic to harvest, or already protected. The ministry also argues that old-growth logging has declined by about 69 per cent since 2015. Sierra Club, however, maintains that despite provincial promises to protect old-growth forests, clear-cutting continues. Last year, conservation groups and First Nations called on the government to act on a five-year-old promise to overhaul the logging industry.